BEIJING - The profits of Chinese commercial banks increased, while the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio declined as of the fourth quarter in 2018, data by the country's top banking regulator showed Monday.

The commercial banks raked in a net profit of over 1.83 trillion yuan ($273 billion), up 4.72 percent year-on-year by the end of December last year, according to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

Outstanding bad loans of the commercial banks in Q4 dropped 6.8 billion yuan from Q3 to 2.03 trillion yuan.

By the end of December 2018, the NPL ratio of commercial banks stood at 1.83 percent, 0.04 percentage points lower than that in Q3.

Meanwhile, the banking institutions held 268 trillion yuan in total assets, up 6.3 percent year-on-year in 2018. The lenders' liabilities rose 5.9 percent year-on-year, reaching 247 trillion yuan as of Q4 in 2018.